(Montmartre, France – Circa 1899)

It was a bustling autumn afternoon in the village of Montmartre and the citizens were carelessly lollygagging around the place, just having a good time. There were those certain folks who needed to get to a destination on time, others just wanted to explore their surroundings, it wasn't unusual for the Parisians to find beauty in their own city, let alone their village. Although millions of people loved to venture outside, there were some that found pleasure in staying inside their apartments all day. That person was none other than Audrey Delacroix.

Some people put everything into their work, their heart, soul, mind, and even their well-being, that is exactly what Audrey did every single day. Audrey liked to stay inside his apartment and write plays for the Moulin Rouge. She would rarely hang out with her friends unless they had a huge emergency that they needed her help with. "There's no time for friends or the outside world. Playwriting is where my heart is and I'll never let that go!" Audrey would repeat, many times until people didn't want to bother with her anymore, they figured that she liked being alone, but what most people didn't know was that Audrey was responsible for more than just the fate of the Moulin Rouge's productions. She had to take care of something, or someone even more special than writing.

"Audrey!"

A girl's voice was heard from the door of the apartment. She was no more than fourteen and she'd just returned from school. This young woman was Louise – Audrey's adopted daughter.

"You locked the door again!"

"Wait a minute! I have to finish the second act!" Audrey called to Louise. She was starting to get irritated.

"You'll be up 'til midnight again writing your stupid play! Can't you stop for one minute to unlock the door?"

Audrey got offended easily and didn't like it when people called her plays stupid. There was one thing that she hated more than that - being criticized and she wasn't going to take it from a silly girl who knew nothing of the intricate work of writing. She went over to unlock the door and found Louise standing in the doorway holding a stack of books. "What are all those for?" She asked.

"Nothing, just some stupid homework." Louise responded. "I'll get everything done." Louise knew what was coming to her, she knew the consequences of insulting Audrey's hard work. She knew that she was unable to leave her apartment, maybe for many years. It wasn't the worst thing she said, but she should have had some freedom of speech! What was wrong with that?

"The Queen of writing wouldn't like it if you insulted her royal works!"

"Don't call Audrey a Queen, you'll boost her ego more than it already is. It's so big it's dragging her into space!."

Louise found a way to sneak out of the apartment through her bedroom window. She had long been used to sneaking out, so this was no problem for her, all it took was a couple of bed sheets. Once she got her homework done she wandered the streets of Montmartre and eventually met up with her friends – Daniel Villeneuve and The Rosseau Twins – Geneviéve and Renée. Daniel looked as if he worked in the dirt all the time, having tattered clothes and unkempt blonde hair. The Rosseau twins were identical, looking like mirror images sporting long dark hair and the same floral dresses that their mom made for them. The only thing that set them apart were the bows in their hair - Geneviéve's white and Renée's yellow. They sat in their usual spot, outside the Bar Absinthe and talked about what was going on in their lives. They've been doing this ever since they were little children. Louise was talking about how unfair Audrey was being and she asked for her friends opinions.

"And then she said that I knew nothing about theatre and how hard she works. She barely has any time for me! It's always Audrey this and Audrey that!" Louise exclaimed. Louise had a problem with being selfish, she wanted all eyes on her and her friends noticed that.

"Well, it's not about you all the time Louise." Daniel said "there's a lot of interesting people in the world. If you were the only person the world would be boring."

"And we wouldn't be your friends." The twins said in unison.

Louise struck a revelation, maybe there were other people who were more interesting than her. She could automatically think of twenty people off the top of her head, but the most interesting person that she could think of first was Satine. Louise looked up to Satine as a big sister and wanted to become just like her when she grew up. Suddenly, Louise had an idea. "Do you guys think that I could bring Satine to school for career day? She's plenty interesting!"

Her friends were skeptical about the idea. Their parents had always told them the many tales of the Moulin Rouge, the many sex scandals, false love, suggestive dancing, and drunken Bohemians. They automatically assumed that if they brought Satine to school, they would be expelled on the spot!

"It will be the best career day ever!" Louise exclaimed.

"We don't want to crush your dreams Louise" Geneviéve interfered "but if we brought her to school we'd get in big trouble."

"She's right." Daniel said "you don't want to get expelled do you?"

Back at home, Audrey was typing away at her typewriter, the second act was almost finished. "Now I'll have time to spend with Louise" she thought. She watched as the words danced on the paper, it was a beautiful sight, the play was amazing, but most importantly – Zidler was going to love it! Audrey dreamed about the praise Zidler was going to give her for her hard work.

"Oh Audrey, you've really outdone yourself this time! This play will make the Moulin Rouge millions! You're truly the best. What would we do without you?"

Suddenly, a loud knock on the door interrupted her dream. "Open the door!" It must have been Louise again. Now that Audrey finished writing her play, she unlocked the door and found Louise with her friends, the twins greeted her with a "Bonjour" and the quartet politely entered the apartment. It was much safer than the streets and the friends were welcome there anytime on account of their parents rarely being around because of work. Next to the Bar Absinthe, Louise's apartment was their hangout of choice.

"Louise, I don't want you going over to that bar anymore. It's dangerous." Audrey scolded. She had become used to the fact that Louise wanted to go out on her own and she respected that, but the Bar Absinthe was no place for a fourteen year old.

"It's not like we're hurting anybody." Louise said "while we were there, we saw Monsieur Lautrec, he wanted to know how you were doing."

"Tell him I'm very busy." Audrey said.

The quartet went into Louise's room to talk about things, they figured that they should get out of Audrey's way. She worked better when they wandered off somewhere else. Louise and company were sitting in Louise's bedroom still discussing career day.

"It's not happening for a while now, you have plenty of time to choose someone." Renée said "you could bring Monsieur Lautrec, that would be funny." Louise objected to that idea.

"Maybe so, but he would tell everyone to start drinking. Not a good influence."

"And Satine is?" Daniel said.

"Calm down, she loves children. She can control herself, I'm sure of it." Her friends started to think about how the event would go down.

"Okay Louise, you win. It's not for another five months so bring her and we'll see how it goes down!" Renée said. Louise loved a challenge, she gratefully accepted it with a smile on her face.

"Will do."

AN: So how was it? Was it bad, good, worth reading at all? I personally think that my story could use some work and I will continue to work on the chapters in the future. If anyone has advice for me, please let me know.